Lighting of the Nubble 2018

[cfolster]

Dear Prudence,

We must have felt your lack of camera, because we uncharacteristically not only brought our camera, but took pictures as well!  Alas, they were night shots and because we were not solidly anchored to the ground, most are blurry. long exposure abstracts.  We did manage a couple images, but for the most part, words will have to do.

First, it was great to see Jane Cobb again and nice to have a third person join Robert and I on our last minute adventure.  I changed the launch location day of because I realized Cape Neddick harbor was much closer than York Harbor, so no long return crossing in the dark. 

We met at 3:45 in partly sunny conditions with the temp still around 45 degrees.  Plenty of parking for the beach - I wonder why?  Doesn't anyone else want to be out enjoying this beautiful day?? ? If only they would open up their eyes and see the sunny skies.

I rushed to get the boats and gear because I was so excited to get started with the Christmas light installation!  I had two battery operated sets of lights for each of our boats; one for the back and one for the front.  That turned out to be a good plan - allowing us to turn off the front to save night vision, but still be festive!  

The sun was fast disappearing as we prepared to launch:

By the time we were getting on the water, it was almost dark:

Thus, we paddled off into the gloaming, chatting away about our destination, paddling at night, how long it would take to get there, etc.  Jane and I stopped to turn around and look at our launch.  We noted the streetlight and the little house to the right of it.  Otherwise the cove was dark, which in and of itself is a good marker of location.  Robert also did this, but he was off on another task.  I could see he was paddling away from us, making a beeline for the bell buoy to our left.  I knew he was getting a heading from there to the lighthouse, but I wasn't sure why.  It turns out he had seen some mist on the water when launching and just in case, was getting a sense of the line of direction from the lighthouse to the bell buoy in case we didn't have visibility.  It turned out to be unnecessary, but a good exercise nonetheless.  

We passed Short Sands beach on our right and soon were close to the Nubble when we encountered Harbor Patrol.

No wait, something's not right; that flashing blue light looks like it's moving around, not fixed on a boat.

As we paddled closer, 'harbor patrol' turned into a stand up paddleboarder with white lights and a blue flashing light on his paddle!  He and others from https://www.seacoastpaddleboardclub.com/  had the same great idea to paddle out to the Nubble.  He was joined by none other than Santa Claus!

It was great to meet other brave souls out there!  They invited us to connect with their club and try paddle boarding.  It would be great to get a paddle together with them and NSPN.  The folks on shore loved Santa and he was playing the part well.  Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! in a big booming voice.  I think our pretty lit up boats, Santa and the other paddle boarders were a main attraction for those on shore as they waited for the lighting.  

There was a strange little lit up lump in the water:

What's that?

Oh, that's just a lit Christmas tree submerged underwater by scuba divers.  Because that's what you do on the seacoast!  Later in the evening, they fully submerged the tree and then it rose out the water and made it's way a bit tipsily to shore.  It is a strange, but wonderful site!

We still had a 1/2 hour to kill, so decided to try to paddle around the island.  It was at first a bit unnerving, but we shut our headlamps off and it quickly became easier to see and the swells were pretty small.  I was still a little uncomfortable, so before rounding the point to go in the other side, so despite Robert's encouragement to forge ahead, had us turn around, where we rode a following sea back to the safety of more light and flat water.  We need to do these night paddles more to get more comfortable with sound and motion as cues, rather than visual.

So we paddled around, in the cove, chatted with santa and the other boarders who were talking about how we wouldn't be able to see the moon much longer.  The three of us were confused; there was no moon, what are they talking about?  But then we turned around and saw the biggest, most beautiful moon EVER!  Words cannot describe.  Our pathetic attempts at photography cannot describe.  It was right at the horizon and bigger than I have ever seen.  The bank of clouds that was the front was just above it and very quickly swallowed it up.  That was hands down, the best part of the evening and the best part of any paddle I've been on.

We were all starting to get a little chill around the edges and getting inpatient, when all of a sudden, the lights on the Nubble came on and the crowd erupted in cheering and applause. 

Pictures were taken and it was time to paddle back.  Turns out the three of us paddle fairly fast, so as with the paddle out, it only took a 1/2 hour.  We were quite pleased with ourselves that we were able to correctly identify our cove, the street light and house.  Robert had some other visual cues from about 1/2 way that were helpful and I took note that it's good to get those visual images not just at the launch but at different distances from your launch.

It was 37 degrees when we returned, but the long carry to the cars warmed us up (note to self: put kayak wheels on Christmas list).  We loaded the boats and gear to the cars and with that, the 1st Annual NSPN paddle to the Lighting of Nubble LIght was complete.  It was a 2 hour paddle, but was fun and invigorating and a great experience!

I do hope you and many others can join us next year to create a flotilla of kayaks festooned with lights.

Yours truly,

Cathy

[prudenceb]

Dear Cathy,

Well done report and the photos weren't bad either.  

Yours truly,

Prudence

[Joseph Berkovitz]

Wow! That looks a super fun time! I hope we'll do this next year...